Shackerstone Village Profile

GENERAL

Shackerstone is one of West Leicestershire's most popular villages and in the writers opinion one of the prettiest villages in the area. There is a very highly rated primary school on the edge of the village in nearby Congerstone. Shackerstone is a highly sociable village and once a year it hosts a large charity event, The Shackerstone Family Festival, which can include everything from vintage cars to displays by the red arrows and spitfires. There are some fabulous walks and it is a village where people from aspire to live.

HISTORY

Anciently Shackerstone was known as Sacrestone, Shakston, Shaxton and Shackerston and still today the village name proves difficult for some. The village name meant ''the village of robbers'', so perhaps the different spellings were to conceal this! Through the centuries Shackerstone was a sleepy, rural village but with the Industrial Revolution and the coming of the canals and the railways, life changed forever and Shackerstone became a much busier place. Gopsall Hall was built in the village and was home to one Charles Jennens, a librettist and great friend of George Frideric Handel, who, villagers say, was staying at the hall when he wrote perhaps his most famous oratorio, The Messiah. Sadly the hall is no more but parts of the beautiful surrounding park are still in evidence. Today, Shackerstone is home to the Battlefield Line Railway which is a preserved steam and diesel line running trains most weekends of the year to and from Bosworth Battlefield.

LOCATION

Shackerstone lies approximately three miles North West of Market Bosworth, four and a half miles from Ibstock.

The village is visited every two weeks by the mobile library even though there is a well stocked library in Market Bosworth. There is a Parish Church in the village and two public houses. Although there are no shops in the village nearby Market Bosworth has a range of shops including a Post Office, a florist, hairdressers and a Co-operative supermarket. There are also a number of superstores within a ten mile radius.